Saturday, October 15, 2005

Canucks 5 Wild 3

The Vancouver Canucks bounced back from Wednesday's humiliating loss and defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-3 last night. Marc Crawford juggled his lines and five different Canucks forwards scored a goal. It's good to see a much stronger effort from the team. The game recap is here; the score sheet and stat sheet are here and here.My notes from the game:

Todd Bertuzzi was moved from the top line and onto one with Ryan Kesler and Matt Cooke. The line gave Minnesota fits all night. Bertuzzi, especially, played more like Vintage Todd. Kesler and Bertuzzi both scored their first goals of the season, albeit Todd's was an empty-netter.

Richard Park had, easily, his best game as a Canuck. Playing on a line with Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund, Park didn't look out of place and had a 3-point night (1G, 2A).

With three lines scoring last night, I wonder if Crawford will stick with these line combinations for a while.

Bryan Allen also had a strong game. He was physical and didn't get beat a lot and finished a plus-3. He even occasionally jumped in and joined the play. Allen brings a physical element to the defense and the Canucks need him to have games like this more regularly.

Cloutier gave up 3 goals in 13 shots. The third Minny goal (a screened shot from the point) no way he would have seen, but the first was off a gawd-awful rebound. Auld should start one of the upcoming home games - the Canucks play the next four of their games at GM Place - but I wouldn't be surprised if Auld started the first of the four.